Comments on: Fun and Unusual Units of Measurements

By: Paiger

Paiger — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 07:37:14 +0000

"jerk - Ever feel a jerk of the car when you accelerate fast? Well, engineers define a jerk as a unit of the rate of change of acceleration. 1 jerk is equal to 0.3048 m/sec3." Jerk is not the unit of the rate of change of acceleration, it is the term given to that. The unit Jerk is not a number, it is the rate of change of the acceleration--the slope of a graph of acceleration vs. time. It can have any value! The phrase "1 jerk" is completely meaningless, unless you're referring to a person. I know this is an old post, but I just found it and I find it strange that, even though Mart pointed this same thing out to you months ago, you've done nothing to improve the quality of your blogging.

By: AG

AG — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 22:55:04 +0000

We have a unit on measure here in SLO we call a Reno, named for Janet Reno, the Attorney General under Clinton.

1 Reno is equal to the distance away from Janet Reno you must be for her to be attractive. Most women(hopefully) are a fraction of a Reno.

By: Vicki

Vicki — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 02:01:59 +0000

No Libraries of Congress?

By: Félix +

Félix + — Sat, 07 Feb 2009 23:52:23 +0000

Brilliant...
I go crazy with the googolplex, but the Warhol is definitely a surprise.

Good!

By: Laffing

Laffing — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 18:54:14 +0000

Re: Barry...and it is good used when answering your commanding officer asking how many enemy soldiers are charging at you.

By: Ken David

Ken David — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 16:45:25 +0000

When I was in college we used to measure stench in DFUs, or Dog Fart Units. The rottennest human fart was seldom more that a couple dozen MILLI DFUs.

By: [|FuRiA|]

[|FuRiA|] — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 08:53:10 +0000

Atomus (From the latin prefix A (means "no") Tomus (parts)) this object with "no parts" is commonly known or translated as indivisible. As it was the smallest particle ever thought to be found, the fabric of the universe.

By: BoBo

BoBo — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 08:18:38 +0000

Move that up just a hair. How far is a hair?

By: just a guy

just a guy — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 17:35:11 +0000

In the book Cryponomicon, one of the character describes what is refered to as "F*ck You Money", which is a financial amount that changes based on various factors. It's an amusing description.

By: Rich

Rich — Sun, 01 Feb 2009 01:35:56 +0000

I wish someone would invent a unit of length to replace "football field".I don't like or watch football so when someone says something is "the length of x# of football fields" I can't picture it.

By: chudez

chudez — Sat, 31 Jan 2009 15:48:02 +0000

i've always instinctively used the mcdonalds exchange rate ... never knew economists had an equivalent measure.

By: adam r

adam r — Sat, 31 Jan 2009 11:37:32 +0000

Again with the Sagan,

He said "Billions of billions". Billions and billions is redundant.

By: lisa

lisa — Sat, 31 Jan 2009 07:09:33 +0000

That's a mule.

By: Kevin

Kevin — Sat, 31 Jan 2009 00:19:33 +0000

My favorite is sesquipedalis-roughly equal to a cubit.

By: db48x

db48x — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 23:47:02 +0000

Ezekiel 48 doesn't give the size heaven or of New Jerusalem, but of the Temple. There is a huge difference.

By: Jason

Jason — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 20:41:45 +0000

Re: The Donkey Picture

"this is what happens when you overload your ass"

By: earbox

earbox — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 18:55:48 +0000

I would argue that one Fonzie is the amount of coolness required to jump one shark.

By: Stu

Stu — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 18:43:31 +0000

What about the RCH. A unit of measure, roughly 1/200th of an inch.

BTW, RCH stands for Red C... Hair.

By: Alex

Alex — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 17:54:10 +0000

@Moodindigo: I've edited the baker's dozen entry to reflect the source and the medieval English law that made shorting your customer a crime punishable by the chopping of your hand. @Mart: You're right - that was sloppy of me. A jerk is the unit of measurement of the rate of change of acceleration. Fixed now, thank you! @Mitochondria: You're right, and Kirk never said "Beam me up, Scotty!" but for better or worse, both are immortalized by their misquotes.

By: Mr Z

Mr Z — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 17:49:58 +0000

MilliHelen scale of beauty is more properly used in conjunction with the Dow scale for ugliness. See http://www.combatwife.net/dougdinkydow.htm for an understanding of dinkydow and #10, thus the exact opposite of 1000 MilliHelens is #10 dinkydow or just Dow.

Yes, there is disparity in scaling between good and bad here... but it would seem that bad and ugly doesn't really need a fine granulation. By way of usage, a woman who is #10 Dow could be described as something that you want forever to un-see. Seeing her in any fashion is instantly a regret you will take to your grave.

I am pleased to see the MilliHelen represented though

By: Barry

Barry — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 17:05:29 +0000

The unit of measure I have proposed many times is the "shitload", as in "I have a shitload of homework to do" or this car repair is going to cost a shitload of money." So, everything comes in shitloads (no matter how large or small), except shit, which comes in "buttloads"...

By: Mitochondria

Mitochondria — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 16:19:20 +0000

Carl Sagan never said "Billions and Billions". It was said intially by Johnny Carson when doing an impersonation of Sagan. Then when Sagan was on the show one night he went ahead and said it to make everyone happy.

Then he wrote a book with that title in which he recounts the story.

I love Sagan!

By: TB

TB — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 16:15:57 +0000

Oh my God, the Smoot!

I remember being 12 years old and my brother (an MIT Grad) showing me the Smoot markings on that bridge.

You guys just made my day.

By: just a guy

just a guy — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 16:12:20 +0000

I also thought the baker's dozen's 13th unit was for the baker to eat.

What's the source for these?

By: Zecc

Zecc — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 15:24:04 +0000

@Mart:

I think your confusing dimension with unit.
Moment is a quantity you want to measure, Newton-meters is the unit you use to measure it.

Then again I can be wrong.

By: JenDiggity

JenDiggity — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 14:57:28 +0000

Trader Joe's has a guacamole called Avagadro's Number because apparently they put a lot of avocadoes in it. I thought that was pretty cute!

By: zav

zav — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 14:34:52 +0000

If Helen of Troy had "the face that launched a thousand ship,"

Ship is singular. Ships is plural. You can't launch a thousand ship. You can launch a thousand ships. Provided that they have them of course.

By: unohav_1

unohav_1 — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 12:43:55 +0000

I learned in school what Mandingo said about a baker's dozen being essentially for quality control.

By: Mart

Mart — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 09:37:29 +0000

Got another definition for moment!

Moment = Unit for a turning force. SI: Nm (Newton-meters)

From my Physics 101 class.

By: Mart

Mart — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 09:33:08 +0000

I hope it's ok to point this out.

I find the phrase for definition of "jerk" to be wrong. It isn't a unit of acceleration. Rather, it is a unit change per unit time of acceleration.

It's just like acceleration can't be said to be a unit of velocity. It is instead a unit change per unit time of velocity.

This isn't being a grammar nazi, is it?